Trailing by nine points on the road at Churchville-Chili, Hilton scored 45 points over the final 14 minutes – 26 of those by junior Tah-Jae Hill – to defeat the Saints 69-51 in boy’s basketball.
Hilton opened up an 8-1 lead to start the game, but the Saints went on a 13-5 run for the rest of the first quarter as second-leading scorer Marcus Postell scored five points and Marcellus James added a pair of field goals to put C-C up by one after the first quarter.
Saints forward Kamerin Poromon added a three-pointer and Griffen Stella added a basket in the second quarter as they led by two at halftime.
They quickly extended their lead early in the second half as Terrence Wilson hit two three-pointers and Joh Keele added a third trey on consecutive possessions to put the Saints up by nine at 33-24.
That’s when the Cadets offense awakened from their slumber outscoring the Saints 14-7 during the rest of the third quarter with senior forward Mitchell Carr and senior guard Jack Gombatto adding field goals to Hill’s 12 points.
Before the benches emptied near the end of the fourth Stella scored four points and Poromon added a trey, but those were the only points the Saints could muster. Hilton junior forward Najier Daniels hit on consecutive trips and senior point guard Noah Malta added a three-pointer to Hill’s 14 fourth quarter points as the Cadets led by as many as 22.
“We had some bad turnovers like stepping out of bounds and bad lob passes in the first half, but I’m trying to be softer and challenge them to be tougher rather than yelling,” 10-2 Hilton head coach Troy Prince said. “They answered the bell.”
Hill finished with 33 points and six rebounds for the Cadets while Carr had 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals and Daniels a team-high eight rebounds to go with six points. Malta handed out seven assists.
Churchville-Chili was led by Postell and Poromon with eight points each, Stella and James each had six points and Tylor Allen added five for the 6-7 Saints.
